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The questions about the willingness of South Carolina's defensive end Jadevenon Clowney to go all out, all the time have placed a cloud on his worthiness as a No. 1 choice.

All of a sudden, there is talk of linebacker Khalil Mack from unheralded Buffalo being the top pick.

Enough already.

It's long past the time for commissioner Roger Goodell to step to the podium at Radio City Music Hall and reveal the choices of the 32 NFL teams. History tells us they may not all be good choices.

I've read that some pro football people think this may be the best draft class ever. Hype truly has no bounds.

Are you kidding me? Don't these guys pay any attention to history?

If you are too young to have memories about 1983 you might want to read up. That draft produced six quarterbacks taken in the first round; three of them went to on to the Pro Football Hall of Fame; three more of the top 28 picks were also elected to the HOF

Thirty-one years ago the NFL draft was a ho-hum event. It was staged in a ballroom at the Sheraton Hotel in New York. There were a bunch of desks, a small podium and no live television.

Few members of the press attended. Most newspapers used a wire service story the next day.

I happened to be in New York on other business and wangled a pass from commissioner Pete Rozelle to watch the proceedings. I didn't even bother to write a story.

The 1983 draft is unique in many ways, but what happened with the quarterbacks is unprecedented.

Elway was that year's Andrew Luck. The Stanford grad was unquestionably the No. 1 pick of the Baltimore Colts. But he refused to sign with the team and said he would rather play right field for the New York Yankees.

That never happened, even though Yankees owner George Steinbrenner compared Elway with Mickey Mantle.

Instead Elway was traded to the Denver Broncos for a highly regarded guard Chris Hinton, who had been Denver's fourth round pick.

Marino came into his senior season at Pittsburgh as a top-rated QB, but had a disappointing final year. Questions also arose about Marino possibly abusing drugs. And Marino saw five quarterbacks drafted in front of him before the Miami Dolphins took him as the 27th pick.

Then there was Kelly, a star on a mediocre University of Miami team, who was drafted No. 14 by the Buffalo Bills. Penn State's Todd Blackledge had been chosen earlier by Kansas City with the No. 7 pick.

The other two first round quarterbacks, picked ahead of Marino, were Tony Eason (New England) and Ken O'Brien (New York Jets).

Elway played in five Super Bowls, won two and is the NFL's third all-time leading passer; Kelly went to four Super Bowls in 11 seasons; Marino is the NFL's all-time passing leader; Eason was a 3-year starter and played 8 seasons; O'Brien played 10 seasons and led the Jets to the playoffs twice; Blackledge was the only one not to measure up to his fellow first-round picks.

The draft class of 2014 certainly has the hype, but there is little chance it will stand the test of time to equal the one in 1983.